Public primary schools in NSW will enforce a mobile phone ban from next year and high schools will have the option of signing up to the crackdown after a State Government review finds the devices lead to online bullying and distraction.

Allegations of sham contracting are at the centre of an "unprecedented" class action involving thousands of subcontractors working for ISGM, a workforce management company which supplies staff for Telstra, Foxtel and NBN Co, in a case thought to be one of the biggest in Australia.

Australia's defamation laws weren't written with social media in mind, but Australians are nevertheless turning to the courts to protest comments made about them online — something which legal experts say leads to arduous and costly legal battles.

Small business owners and Telstra customers across most states are continuing to suffer as an outage affecting eftpos and ATM machines drags on across most states. The telco giant says it's working on the issues, and is apologising to those affected.